One operation that every bonsai artist has to perform from time to time is the trunk chop. It is seldom that you will be able to make a bonsai without making some large cuts on the trunk. This is especially true if you work with trees of any significant size.
Larger trees need to be cut back and made more compact to be of use as bonsai material. Sometimes the upper trunk is removed in favor of a smaller shoot that will serve as the new leader. In other cases, the trunk is cut back to a point where there is no potential shoot. In this case you have to wait and see where one or more buds will pop to form a new leader.
There are right ways and wrong ways to cut the trunk of a potential bonsai tree. In this article, I'll detail the best methods for chopping the trunk of most deciduous trees, like maple, bald cypress and elm.